DC Fit update

Today was our 10 mile run in DC Fit. I kind of think of double digits as a big deal in training. It's almost more-so with the group because some folks have never run this far before. It was fun to see people run farther than they've ever run. Once you hit that point, it's kind of an nice personal achievement where every week you run farther than you've ever gone in your entire life. For me, that'll be when we hit the 14 mile mark, as my longest individual run is a half marathon.

I felt good today. I ran out with the fast kids again, which was a bit of a mistake. We hit the turn at 5 miles at 44:50, and I let them go to run my own pace on the way back. I did the second half in 47:35, which is pretty good, as that is what I had been hoping to pace myself at for the entire run. After one slow mile right at the turn to slow my breathing down, I was able to just sit back into it and truck along. I really am going to just not bother to run at all with the fast kids next week, and see if I can run a comfortable 12 miler, maybe even negative split, if I go out slower rather than faster (yes, I know this is how you're supposed to do it, but we get talking as we warm up, and then we take off, and before I know it, we're 5 miles in and I am feeling like a dumbass, again). For those interested in how my time obsession is progressing, I looked at my watch every 2 miles or so today. It felt good to not worry about it. As long as I remind myself not to obsess, I'll be good.

I also spoke with one of the coaches this past week about how to screw up the schedule to fit it for Chicago, which is 2 weeks before Marine Corps Marathon, which the schedule is based on. My longest run is now going to be 20 miles, as opposed to 22 which everyone else will do, but I'll actually do 20 twice, and Eric (the coach) thinks that for a course like Chicago, being as flat as it is, the span of long runs he came up with (18, 20, 18, 20, then 3 weeks slowly tapering, then race) should get me in fighting shape for it.

Also, on a teammate side note, I got a 2 line email from Lisa this morning. She and Danielle arrived in Tromso last night, "and are seriously time-screwed-up, on account of there is no night. Race starts in 10 hours, woot!" They should be starting around 4 pm EDT, so about 15 minutes after I am posting this. Send them some good vibes!